July 2021 | Volume 16 | Issue 7 | by Ellen Livingood
Improve Your Church’s Missions Health
8 assessment areas and a realistic pathway to growth
As, by God’s grace, we begin to exit this strange COVID era, we discover that much has changed in our church and ourselves. The shifting context seems to beg for renewal, both personal and corporate, in order to see global missions explode in new vitality. To keep pace, church missions assessments must also change.
For many decades, church missions engagement has revolved around Sunday-morning platform communication and highly structured programs. Effectiveness was typically evaluated by the number of missionaries supported or sent, the size of missions budget, and attendance at missions events.
All that has changed. Events, such as an annual missions conference, seldom capture the attention of younger generations. Instead of vicarious missions, it is the hands-on service that ignites passion and disciples people on a pathway to greater involvement.
As, by God’s grace, we begin to exit this strange COVID era, we discover that much has changed in our church and in ourselves. The shifting context seems to beg for renewal, both personal and corporate, in order to see global missions explode in new vitality.
To keep pace, church missions assessments must also change. New approaches must ask harder questions, ones that will help a church envision how to increase their contribution to the gospel’s global momentum in fresh ways.
In this Postings, we present one model of evaluation that points in those new directions. We hope you benefit by considering these eight areas of assessment and a realistic process to design and implement change.
MISSIONS HEALTH ASSESSMENT
1. BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
The pandemic interrupted most churches’ usual methods of missions communication and engagement. In addition, as we return to in-person services, many of our churches are welcoming a significant number of new attendees who may have little or no missions background. Therefore, we cannot assume our congregation today grasps God’s passion for reaching lost and hurting people.
Health Assessment: What is our congregation’s awareness of the centrality of missions in God’s purpose for the Church? What are currently the most effective opportunities in our church to teach and model biblical principles of missions?
Improving our Missions Health: What are one or two ways that we could assist children’s ministry workers, teen mentors, and adult small-group leaders to focus some attention beyond our personal and internal church concerns towards God’s desire to see gospel witness reach from our Jerusalem to the ends of the earth?
2. FRUITFUL CROSS-CULTURAL FRIENDSHIPS
Months of pandemic-enforced isolation have heightened the desire of many people in our churches for hands-on involvement in serving others. The most effective service, and the involvement that will powerfully fuel our people’s passion for global impact, is almost always built on personal relationships.
Health Assessment: What percentage of our congregation (including children and teens) is growing intentional friendships across ethnic, religious, and cultural divides? What elements of these friendships create major Kingdom impact both in “them” and in “us”?
Improving our Missions Health: How can we help our people catch a vision for the potential impact of a simple friendship, whether with people next door or on the other side of the globe? What can we do to help our people overcome fear or apathy, encouraging them to take the first step toward friendships that can eventually lead to gospel transformation?
3. MOTIVATING MISSIONS GOALS
Missions passion becomes contagious when our people understand explicit objectives we believe God is calling us as a church body to accomplish for His glory. These goals are almost always designed by partners on the ground— either missionaries or national workers. The best goals stretch our faith and engage everything God has invested in our people.
Health Assessment: What specific, transformational global-outreach goals do we as a church feel called to reach? What God-sized visions have our missionaries and global partners been given that they are unable to fulfill unless we commit ourselves to help achieve them?
Improving our Missions Health: How can we better communicate our missions goals in narratives that help our people understand that our church has a God-designed part in the Great Commission that He is resourcing us to fulfill? How can we lead our people to celebrate what God is doing through us as a Body?
4. MULTIPLE SERVICE PATHWAYS
Some of our people will gladly serve in any role that offers a missions impact, but many people will not volunteer unless they can use their personal expertise and talents, or serve in an area of their passion.
Health Assessment: In the past year, what additional avenues of missions involvement have we identified for our congregation despite/because of COVID’s impact? Can we catalog the current missions service opportunities we offer and the related skills that they engage? How well defined is our pathway to missionary service?
Improving our Missions Health: What can we do in the coming year to help more people discover their customized missions fit? As we anticipate relaunching short-term ministries, how could we more effectively implement the standards of excellence for short-term trips to increase their value for those we serve and also to disciple those who participate? How can we identify more ways to creatively stimulate our people to greater generosity of time, talent, and financial treasure?
5. MULIFACETED MISSIONARY SUPPLY LINES
All global workers need a highly responsive group of people “back home” maintaining a flow of support. The sending church is usually the natural center of this supply process—whether it is prayer, encouragement, finances, resources, expertise, friendships, visits, or a host of other personal or ministry supports.
Health Assessment: Can we list various ways that we successfully provided care and support for our global workers even in this season of COVID? In what areas are we inadequately identifying what our missionaries and national partners need from us?
Improving our Missions Health: How could we do better at nurturing congregation/missionary friendships built around common interests that will naturally reveal ways to increase our practical support as well? In what specific ways could we expand how we come alongside our global workers?
6. STRATEGY ALIGNMENT AMONG CHURCH LEADERS
As many churches, especially in the West, reimagine church ministry for post-COVID days, three interrelated concepts continually surface: community, discipleship, mission.
Health Assessment: How does our missions involvement align with, and complement, our church’s efforts to build community and practice discipleship? Where have we as leaders failed to listen adequately or communicate well?
Improving our Missions Health: How could we better articulate the ways our missions team envisions that our global involvements could complement our body’s community and discipleship? In the midst of many demands on leaders’ time, how can we facilitate conversations about how missions can integrate into and enrich our church’s overall vision and fulfill God’s design for our body?
7. MESSAGE SATURATION
COVID has changed communications, or at least speeded up many changes in how we deliver our church’s various messages. Meanwhile, our culture continues to move faster and expect ever more rapid and highly targeted communication.
Health Assessment: How many different communication methods are we currently using to inform the various generations in our congregation about missions and stimulate their involvement? What’s working? What isn’t?
Improving our Missions Health: In the coming year, how can we empower younger leaders in our church to develop missions messages that speak to their peers? What other groups in our church need to be exposed to missions using communication styles that speak specifically to them (children, teens, families, seniors, newcomers, members of an ethnic congregation associated with our church, etc.)?
8. ENERGIZED MISSIONS LEADERS
One wise missions pastor determined that keeping his leadership team encouraged and preventing their burnout is one of his very top priorities. COVID has left even many of our strongest and most committed leaders depleted. Don’t be afraid to admit that renewing your leadership team may need to take priority over everything else.
Health Assessment: As our people continue to deal with the impact of COVID individually, church-wide, and globally, to what degree are the members of our various missions leadership teams dealing with exhaustion and discouragement? Or are they feeling energized? How do we measure fatigue?
Improving our Missions Health: What specific things could we do to renew leaders’ vision and vitality to avoid burnout? How can we recruit additional leaders with the specific giftings we need to more broadly distribute responsibilities?
IMPLEMENTING HEALTHY CHANGE
CELEBRATE THE BEST. With your team, read through the eight assessment areas on the previous pages and choose the one your church has been doing best. Identify at least two ways you will celebrate your church’s missions strengths in this area.
IDENTIFY PRIORITY IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED. Together, read through the list again and select one or two areas for improvement. Do not try to address all eight, or you will get overwhelmed and your efforts will be diluted.
IDENTIFY VOICES TO LISTEN TO. Objectively evaluating your missions health will require input from others in your congregation. You may want input from your senior pastor or other leaders, from relative newcomers to your church, from those who represent ethnic diversity, and from representatives of different generations. Don’t skip this step as varied perspectives are crucial.
SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU’VE DISCOVERED. After you have gathered all of your input, develop a brief, overall assessment of your current missions engagement in these desired-improvement areas. Be as specific as possible about strengths and weaknesses.
DEFINE WHAT TO DO. Next, adopt no more than two or three action steps for improvement in these areas within the next six months. Some may be suggested by the questions in the “Improving missions health” sections. Or your assessment may point toward a different type of needed change.
RECRUIT CHANGE IMPLEMENTERS. Finally, ask God to give you at least two people to work together to facilitate each improvement. The Holy Spirit may point you to volunteers who are not part of your current leadership team. Give them freedom, but also support and direction. Set an implementation date, and ask people to pray for God to make your improvements successful.
Does your leadership team have “holy dissatisfaction”—a sense that God wants your church to have a much greater impact that what you have achieved so far? We trust that this assessment and improvement process will help you to identify areas where “holy dissatisfaction” is motivating you to trust God for more.
At the same time, we would encourage you to have “holy patience” as well! If change is slow in coming, it may be because God has other work to do in your congregation before His expands His work through you in these specific areas. But never give up! Remember what Paul reminded the Philippians: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:6.